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trying really really hard not to get into fandom discourse. but i must say. the complaints with the lack of queer intimacy in this season arenāt coming from a place of āi want to watch boys kiss uwuā. and to pretend anyone is saying that is disingenuous and you know it.
the PROBLEM is that this show used to never shy away from queer intimacy. the FIRST EPISODE had one of the best sex scenes iāve ever watched in a tv show. louis and lestat kissed all the time, they hugged and cuddled, etc. then season two, louis and armand of course, but also lestat and armand! and louis and dreamstat! narratively there was no real reason to show them making out and drinking from each other (more on that later). but they do! because this is the gay vampire show with gay vampires!
and now, what do we get from s3?
1. transphobic joke at the expense of a nonbinary vampire, they get misgendered, then they die.
2. CANON transmasc/gnc character in the books gabi is turned into a hyper femme dommy mommy character. so not only did they erase her identity from the books, but they decided to swing SO HARD in the other direction. it feels like they only made gabi SO feminine bc they really wanted to go with the incest plotline and god forbid they show lestat making out with anyone whoās not overtly feminine.
3. SO MANY sex scenes. with women. they age up baby jenks, seemingly just so she can fuck lestat. weird. then lestat kisses his mom in like every other episode, and they get PLENTY of sex scenes. NOT ONLY THAT, but she drinks from him in ep2 as well. so we get literal and metaphorical vampire sex. AND GABI ALSO FUCKS JARDA? we SEE. ON SCREEN. GABI FUCKING JARDA. it could have gotten the point across to just hear them moaning and screaming from the other room. it just feels egregious to include that but not any queer intimacy on screen at all.
4. all of the hype around dm for this season. ebogo saying he needed an intimacy coordinator, assad and eric alluding to sucking and fucking since s2 ended!! (for the record iām not blaming either of them for the lack of onscreen queer intimacy we got this season. iām just saying their comments led to an expectation that was not fulfilled)
5. a fetishized, gross, egregious lesbian makeout from regina and fake madeline, for louisā benefit. i have a couple questions about this because like thereās no way louis ASKED them to do that right? heād get nothing from watching his daughtersister make out with her girlfriend. and yes i UNDERSTAND THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE. but that means weāre allowed to have a deliberately uncomfortable lesbian kiss on screen but nothing else? doesnāt seem much better.
and what DONT we get from s3??
ANY QUEER INTIMACY THAT MATTERS.
sure, maybe lestat and louis arenāt at the point in modern day where they want to be physically intimate. we get the pinky touch and basically nothing else. fine. i personally think thatās a stupid justification for blatant queerphobia but fine.
lestat and nicki DONT EVEN KISS in the flashbacks of them in paris. i thought they were in love?? not enough for even a single kiss between them? louis was making out with dream!stat in s2 and lestat canāt kiss nicki even once?? if ANYONE deserved a kiss this season it was nicki and lestat. that even could have been a great narrative device! to show the difference between lestatās intimacy with nicki juxtaposed with his scenes with gabi. but no. fine.
and in modern day as well, lestat is only allowed to be shown having casual sex with random women, or his mother. it just seems like a glaring omission from mister lestat ānon-discriminatingā di lioncourt. louis got to have on-screen casual sex with jonah in s1! this show has NEVER been scared of queer intimacy before, ācasualā or not.
these omissions are GLARING. this problem is NOT just people missing hot men kissing on screen, and if you think thatās what literally anyone is arguing, you are being intentionally dense. this is a real problem with the season.
TVL's Issues w/ Bias and how it's somehow worse than Anne Rice's(??)
Lestat's season has, shockingly, been all about Lestat. But that doesn't mean the show needs to suffer because of it. Side characters still deserve quality writing, previous seasons still need to be addressed; All in all, this season being from Lestat's perspective does not mean Lestat must exist in a vacuum where everything gets drawn towards him and almost nothing exists outside of that. But it kind of feels that way! And, somehow, I believe the book series written by the number one Lestat glazer herself suffers less from this issue than the show does. WAYYY more under the cut!
In regards to Lestat's actions:
I've always praised the show in the past for being able to sift through Anneās biases and show us something a little more objective/balanced on the screen. Writing literature is a much more intimate process that creating television, and sometimes this shows itself more blatantly with certain authors, such as Anne. TVC follows her through her life and her shifting perspectives using her characters as a vehicle to do so. And while thatās beautiful in its own right, it can hinder the more technical or āobjectiveā side of story telling, which we see through Lestat. Lestat was her favorite, Lestat was her ideal self, and thatās shown true by how every character immediately falls in love with him and- often times- absolves him from his mistakes.
S1&2ās choice to worsen the severity of Lestatās actions, to me, felt like a way to separate itself from Anneās inherently biased story telling. They made it feel as if his decisions had true weight, that no matter what they could not be forgotten and/or absolved (As Claudia says: āWe leave the damage, so we never forget the damageā). But then S3 comes around and it seems like that was all just for show because virtually nothing Lestat did in the previous seasons have been accounted for within 6/7 episodes. Louis takes him back without discussing whether or not Lestat voluntarily participated in his and their daughterās lynching, Lestat takes a passive role in Claudiaās seance despite having turned her and abused her, Akashaās Blood is implied to be intrinsically tied to Lestat dragging Louis by the throat and dropping him from 1000ft (when Louis points out āitās not the blood, itās what you do with itā itās turned into a joke and they start cracking up), all the while Louis apologizes for every little thing and Lestatās entire character arc this season revolves around being victimized.
This complete lack of acknowledgement or admission towards Lestatās wrong doings is so prominent that even Anne herself paid more attention to them in the books! (In reference to Claudiaās turning: āAnd it was out of this desperation to keep him [Louis]ā¦ that I committed the most selfish and impulsive act of my entire life among the undead.ā) Even later on in the series- namely TotBT- when Lestatās actions are particularly vile, he makes no effort to explain them away. Take, for example, his rape of David Talbot, which he acknowledges for what it is: a monstrous violation. This is such a stark contrast from the constant victimization and dumbing down that Lestat suffers from this season that itās honestly astonishing that Anne Rice herself seemed to acknowledge Lestatās behavior for what it was more than the show runners. Which, honestly, thereās just no excuse for. Not only do you consciously choose to make Lestat worse than he is in the source material but you lack the deeply personal relationship Anne had with him! There is no reason to be shoved this far up his ass this season (It being Lestatās POV is no excuse because, with only one episode left, his POV should have been broken down by now)!!
In regards to other characters:
As per mentioned, it's no secret that Lestat was Anne's favorite character. Not only did this show through his characterization, but also the treatment of characters around him. Louis was famously sidelined after iwtv (which is far more complex than just Anne's favoritism of Lestat, but it still feels important to note) and the PL trilogy seems to have the whole vampire world revolving around Lestat. It feels like every vampire has an intense love for him, no matter what. I'd be damned to find more than 2 character's in TVC that is a detractor of his.
Well, TVL doesn't mimic this aspect of bias towards Lestat, but it does implement something that is arguably worse: making the characters nothing but narrative devices to him. I think the treatment of Nicolas this season is one of the examples for this. His character is nonexistent outside of the realm of Lestat. He's the "bipolar boyfriend", the "first love", he's there to serve as a sad flashback and a blockage for Lestat to get past so the plot can advance, NOT to serve as his own character. This is extraordinarily different from the life he is given with the books. His character is not only viewed from a deeply empathetic lens (Lestat describes this very vivid scene when taking Nicki's blood: "I saw a bird soaring out of a cave above the open sea. And there was something terrifying about the bird and the endless waves over which it flew... it was falling gradually and inexorably over nothing save this one tiny creature cawing in the wind above a great wasteland that was the world.), but is nearly always brought up by Lestat in every book he narrates in the series. Within the narrative Nicki isn't just a pawn to be moved forward but a person that existed and is remembered NOT out of some haunting guilt that needs to be reckoned with, but simply because he was there and he was loved.
I also feel like Gabrielle is worth noting when comparing Anne's own biases versus the show runners. Anne had this to say about Gabi's character:
Yet Gabrielle is still given dignity and respect in the books. We watch as she breaks free from her rather violent oppression under the patriarchy and finds who she's always wanted to be within vampirism. As soon as she's liberated she starts presenting as a man, she wanders the woods and goes out on her own to explore. It doesn't erase the lasting trauma she inflicted on Lestat due to her neglect and abandonment, but it does make her a 3 dimensional character that you can feel for. So tell me why the show runners threw all this away to make her a sexual abuser and manipulator who controls Lestat throughout the entire season? Even Anne, who didn't like her, gave her more care than that!
In conclusion:
Season 3 suffers from a quite apparent bias towards it's front man and it seems like it's done too much damage to be fully recovered from in episode 7. I truly believe the writers are hiding under the crux of "It's Lestat's perspective!" in order to write what they want, what fills their agenda, without thinking of the integrity of their work and the standards they set the two previous seasons. The character writing leading up to TVL has been astonishingly brilliant. They're all complex, they're all troublesome, and they're all monsters. But season 3 tells us some are more monstrous than others, some deserve to be humbled more than others, and some are worth less than others. This mindset is extremely different from the complex world Anne Rice had crafted within TVC, in which vampirism is treated as a unifying monstrosity that makes it impossible to hold one character above any of the others.
I'm still holding out hope for episode 7 to re-contextualize at least some of these issues, but I would be hard pressed if it suddenly excused the 6 episodes before it that seem to shamelessly foster them without much proof that they are features rather than bugs.
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One of the biggest things that I think the writers do have to contend with, and hopefully they will listen to real feedback, is a lot of the writing of Armand is entrenched in xenophobia in the books. Anne treated Armand as a sin-eater, so to speak, for Lestat. He exists, mostly, in The Vampire Lestat to: attack Lestat, inform Lestat and absolve Lestat. Itās all about making Lestat more sympathetic and making his journey simpler and more compelling.
Assadās casting should be the biggest strength of this adaptation because the colonial nature of Lestat, Gabrielle and Mariusā treatment of him and the kind of language they use to refer to him could be highlighted and critiqued. All those slights against Armand from Lestat and Gabi across the season couldāve amounted to something.
But they chose to neglect this completely, relegate him to the background and only focus on the hyper-violent side of the character. I think the scene will be enough to connect with the most casual viewers a little because itās spelt out for them what theyād supposed to feel, but the deeper context deserves examining.
And then you factor in show!Louis and how heās also been treated this season, and itās so much worse.
Both characters, in different ways, were used as punching bags this season which would be something if it had gone anywhere, but the big climax is Armand taking out anger that ought to be directed at Lestat on Louis?
Look, I do think this is the work of people who just switched Louis and Lestatās roles and didnāt consider the consequences. Perhaps thatās being generous, but itās better than the alternative. But it still is what it is. It still looks how it looks. Canāt blame the budget for this one. This beautiful, nuanced exchange between Louis and Armand which was a conversation that needed to be had is buried inside this scene, and itās a shame because Assad and Jacob carried this episode.
Theyāve made great changes to Louis through casting Jacob, whereas Assad is much more in line with his book counterpart and both of these things ought to be strengths. But thoughtless writing robbed them of that. There is a learning opportunity here and I hope it is taken, but if you can and if you want to, do take the time to email AMC with a detailed complaint. Iām drafting mine right now.
Actually the fact that Nicki feels more authentically camp than Lestat does at any time this season is lowkey really funnyā¦ when the hallucination of your dead ex is better at queening out than uā¦.
fun fact one of the world champions in pepper-eating contests is a trans woman and she actually faced significant backlash because people somehow thought she had a biological advantage. to eating spicy pepper
update bc i went back and checked: her name is brianna āthe chilli queenā skinner and she set a record in 2017 by slamming back 23 carolina reapers consecutively. she only stopped when told to by the referees, and the next year she stepped down out of boredom. queen
The championship, it should be noted, is unisex. Apparently being a trans woman gives you an innate biological advantage over both cis men and cis women.
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Watched TVL after dark (so you donāt have to) here are some points
the host said this was the best season of television she has watched, Rolin thanks her but the actors are like not reacting to itā¦ except for Delainey whoās face KILLED ME (it seems to me sheās throwing a glance at Jacob)
-I wanna say that all the actors looked so uncomfortable the entire episode. No one wanted to be there or discuss it. All questions the actors got was deflected by them to praise someone elseās good work (ex. Jacob praising Assads and Delaineys acting when asked about the torture scene)
- Rolin says basically that maybe it felt nothing happened but thatās only because Lestat has such a strong āarmorā and doesnāt want to look inside himself and that they need another season to actually explore him as a character
-the head chopped happened bc they wanted to explore how Lestat would react to being near deathā¦ and it was the thing that made him realize Gabi was abusive.
- Sam Reid loved the Paul scene because all Lestat wants to hear is that Louis loved him? Unclear to me maybe itās bc Iām not a native English speaker
-Rolin and the writers made the conscious decision to remove Claudia from the long table (ā¦)
- maybe Iām projecting but Delainey seems sad and off and doesnāt want to be there and like she disagrees with all the writing choices for Claudiaā¦ :( my goat.
-Hannah said Rolin hated writing about identity and wrote about it all this season. Itās a lot about creative failure and Rolin didnāt like it. (That shows)
-Assad was asked about the torture scene and said that Armand felt seen by Louis and it reminded him why he fell in love with Louis in the first place :( he didnāt seem to like talking about it
-Hannah said that Armand was violent bc he knew that heād been used in all sorts of ways by Louis and āhe wanted what he wantedā ?!?!?!?? š¤Øš¤Øš”š¤Ø Assad and Jacob both looked displeased by the answer
Again wtf?!?!??!? Armand tried to lynch Louis and killed his daughter and lied about it for 77 years ?!()?(???!?!!!!!?,?? I love Armand but Jesus wtf is this DARVO
-Jacob didnāt want to talk about the torture scene at allā¦
This pissed me all the way off Rolin interjects and says that he found it EXTRAORDINARY that after 2 seasons of Louis ānavel grazingā and only being involved in his own stuffā¦ that Louis can admit āwhat did I do that caused this guy to chop of my head?ā
WTF IS THIS VICTIM BLAMING ?!?
Delainey and Jacob both look down to the ground uncomfortably
Jacob then says (sarcastically imo) āThatās Louis way of saying the fault is mineā
They get into the āpimpā and āsex slaveā aspect. Assad and Jacob tries to save it by saying thereās layers to abuse and this was just one aspect of Loumands dynamic and there are intersections.
- The host asked where Rolin would like to take the story
His answer is āum thereās a lot of things people wanted to see that didnāt get included this season (them telling and not showing the whole season) that QOTD will have another framing device and point of views structure.
He also said that they risked failure this season (hm sure did) and heās excited to continue bc they only told half of Lestatās story.
This is my subjective reading from my own watch of this episode keep that in mind.
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In case anyone hasn't heard, the cyclospora outbreak affecting tons of people in the US right now is coming from Taylor Farms produce. Best to stay away from bagged lettuce and prepared salads completely right now, but especially the ones mentioned in the screenshot:
Taylor Farms
Earthbound Farms
Little Salad Bar (Aldi)
Marketside (Walmart)
Kroger House Brand
Target private label greens
Costco salads and greens etc
Trader Joe's chopped salad kits and fresh produce
Fast food: McDonalds, Taco Bell, (Yum! Brands), Chipotle, Subway, Pizza Hut, KFC, Olive Garden, Top Golf, Red Lobster, Burger King, etc.
This is not the first time I've heard about a Taylor Farms foodborne illness outbreak. I stopped eating their salads after reading a description of the conditions in their facilities. Doesn't sound like they've improved anything.
We need a fully funded and staffed FDA, and regulations with teeth - and that's exactly what we don't have under Trump. To make things worse, the CDC is no longer tracking these outbreaks. We're on our own.
romaincrisis
dailybridgerton
yousharknotpass
ellievsbear
andulkaphoto
titsay
prguitarman
jacobvanloon
